Tailing the assassins

Xian did not even spare a glance for the two women, the First Prince or the other victims. He was utterly focused on the retreating soldiers in front of him.

He followed the escaping assassins to another dark and narrow alley. A black-clad man was standing at the entrance of a nondescript house with a really low door. Everyone was in a hurry so the man didn't verify thoroughly if he knew the faces of the fleeing soldiers. In truth, he probably didn't remember most of them, so he only checked an insignia of sort on their right shoulder, hidden under a layer of clothes. Xian didn't have the insignia, how could he go through this checkpoint ?

Xian took a few moments to ponder. The man was taller than him, which was not a remarkable feat considering Xian's height. He seemed older, well past middle-aged, and somewhat scrawny. However, Xian knew better than judge a book by its cover. He, himself, had a short and slender body but was stronger than most. His instincts told him to beware of this sentry.

He hid himself, hoping that he could ambush one of his enemies and steal the insignia but an isolated enemy was hard to find and Xian had no way to get his hands on the secret badge. During the wait, he adjusted his golden hair in the helmet. The sword he retrieved from a fallen enemy after the fight could be helpful but the piece of armor was useless to him. It was a really low-quality piece of metal with no sign on it. Xian thought of discarding it but decided to keep it, just in case. It hardly covered part of the chest, over the heart and lungs, and some of the straps were damaged. Nevertheless, he put it on in order to improve his disguise and be more convincing. It was not an easy task to impersonate someone he didn't know anything about.

After a while, it seemed that the flow of running soldiers was reduced to a trickle before stopping completely and Xian was still stuck, unable to enter the house. The man at the entrance checked the empty street one last time before turning his back. His hand was already on the doorknob and he was about to duck in order to avoid bumping his head on the door frame. It was in this vulnerable state that he received a strong blow on the back of his lowered head.

However, Xian's instinct were right on the spot. Even though the man received such a powerful punch, he didn't even waver and immediately unsheathed his dagger. Before Xian could even react, the blade was sliding on the metal covering his heart. The worthless piece of armor just saved his life. At this exact moment, Xian managed to land a punch on the sentry's face, breaking his nose and part of his brow. The dagger fell on the ground with a clatter reverberating on the dim facades of the buildings in the empty lane.

Now that the man had seen him, it was too dangerous to let him live. He could identify him and in any case, Xian was a professional spy, he knew how to cover his tracks, remove witnesses and clean up after him. It was a necessary skill if he wanted to stay alive in this line of work. Even though he was still a teenager, he had to do what had to be done. Nobody would help him, he had to rely on none but himself.

Therefore, in the same movement, Xian grabbed the shoulders of his opponent, still bent and nursing his broken nose with his hands, and landed a blow with his knee right in the exposed chest. Its brutality was at a very high level since Xian smashed the poor guy's body on the rising knee. The man's body was far stronger than it looked but the clash sound was followed by cracking bones and wailing cries. The rib cage caved in with a sickening noise and blood was already bubbling out of the mouth of Xian's victim, the wail reduced to a strange sobbing whine.

But the young murderer was not done yet. He used to side of his hand to crush the windpipes of the dying man with a sharp blow then took the blade lying on the ground to sever the head completely. Seemed like the man really took good care of this favorite dagger of his. Had it not been a surprise attack, Xian was sure it would have been far more difficult to enter the house.

Xian wiped the blade on its former owner's clothes and hid the body of the dead man. Looking around, he checked that nobody saw him and quickly entered the house. All his senses were in alert, he didn't want someone else to try the same trick and assault him with a surprise attack.

In the house, he hesitated a moment. While moving the corpse in order to hide it, he had searched the dead man's clothes and didn't find any insignia or sign of any kind. Xian had just killed a man but had no further information on Lady Wei's enemy. He wished he could go back and check on Lady Wei's well-being as soon as possible but he didn't want to return empty-handed.

It was dark and cramped inside the house. Xian wondered who could live in such a house. Not only the door, even the ceiling was low and even though Xian was rather short, the lack of space was stifling. He tiptoed in the corridor, trying to remain unnoticed. There was a wooden door on this floor and a staircase leading both upstairs and downstairs. Everything was silent except for a woman humming in the closed room. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the door frame. This room was probably the kitchen.

Xian reached the stairs and climbed to the first floor. The corridor was dark except for a ray of light under the first door. Xian came closed by and crouched to spy through the keyhole. Even with his enhanced eyesight, he couldn't see anything suspicious. A man was sitting at a desk, writing in a ledger while counting gold coins out of a purse and in an ornate box. Then he stood up and put the box in a safe.

The unusual amount of gold and the adorned box contrasted with the poor lodging. The man seemed to be a miser who probably earned this money from the soldiers passing through his house. Xian hoped that he could listen to some conversation but the man was alone and everything was so silent that it was unnerving. It was already late and the man had just finished counting his gold. Xian was pondering if he should interrogate this man but decided against it. His instincts told him that he had to make haste if he didn't want to lose the group of fleeing assassins.

Quick and silent as a cat, he went down the flight of stairs all the way to the underground floor. Half way down, on the remaining steps, the wooden stairs were changed to stone ones. The walls as well were partly stone and the floor of the corridor was made of dirt. Here, the temperature dropped drastically, as if is was a cellar, a dungeon or a vault. The atmosphere was gloomy and Xian half-expected to come across a grave or two. His eyesight was magically enhanced therefore the dimly lit corridor was not a problem.

The dirt on the floor seemed trampled on and many footprints could be seen. This was the tracks left behind by the group Xian was trailing. Dagger in hand, he carefully followed the lead as fast as he could without making any noise, there were people upstairs and he didn't know if some people were on this floor as well.

In this narrow space, it was inconvenient to use the sword and he was out of knives. The deeper inside the enemy's lair he went, the higher the adrenaline rush in his vein. He had no way of escaping, should he encounter enemies but he intended to give his all in the fight.

He could feel a draft of cold air coming from a closed door ahead of him and opened it slowly. Behind him, he heard footsteps on the flight of stairs. Someone was coming down at a leisurely pace, no need of magic power to catch these sounds.

In the dark room, on the floor, Xian spotted a rusted iron gate blocking to way to an old underground passage directly dug out in the ground. It probably led outside and was a well-concealed efficient path for fugitives. Xian didn't need any key to open this kind of gate, he just grabbed the metal bars and pulled hard with brute force. He had to admit that he couldn't be bothered by this kind of puny obstacles. He needed to hurry to catch up with the group, however, he still didn't know how he should react once he approached them.

Should he try to merge and act as one of them ? After the insignia episode, he thought it was unlikely that he would be able to fool the enemy and infiltrate their group. However, even though he had no plan and was at a loss, he resolved that he would follow his instincts. As Soon-Yi often said, Xian was "a reckless moron", even if he could think of a plan, he never followed it through.

He sighed inwardly while rushing through the tunnel. "Not thinking" meant "not worrying" so he supposed it was for the best. Going straight ahead at full throttle was his default mode when he didn't know what to do. And it was not a matter of courage/cowardice, or stupidity. He just had to take action, he could not afford to remain idle because in the meantime danger could befall Lady Wei. The faster he ended his mission, successfully, the sooner he could go back to protecting his Lady.

The underground tunnel was completely dark. The walls were dried mud and an horrible stench was assaulting Xian's nose. Even with his eyesight, there was not much to see. The tunnel did not have any secondary passageways and no hideout either. Xian could not see any light ahead so he surmised that the fleeing soldiers were already too far ahead of him to be visible.

Even if they were in a hurry to flee, Xian thought that they would feel secure enough to bring some torches or any other magic objects used to light their path.

After a few turns, Xian arrived in front of a stone wall. The tunnel continued on his left but most of the footprints went directly to the wall. Without a doubt, this was a hidden gate. His enhanced eyesight didn't reveal the way to open the door and Xian felt that he had to hurry. He searched every visible stone and even felt them with his fingertips. Still, he couldn't find any clue. He wondered if he could just punch the wall. With his tremendous strength, he might be able to shatter the wall but then, it would be difficult to avoid rising the enemy's suspicion.

Then, he observed the footprints going in the left-hand tunnel. They seemed to go in both directions and were rather fresh and new. Xian followed them and found a hidden niche in the darkest part of the wall, very low, close to the floor. In the niche was a round glowing globe. Due to the niche position, the faint glow was invisible in the corridor, one had to look straight inside, even squatting or kneeling. The globe was pretty small, it fitted perfectly in Xian's hand. Xian felt a tingling on his palm and hoped he didn't trigger any trap or magic prison.

After a short while, the globe felt warm in his hand and Xian started to manipulate it. Apparently, the magic was not meant to harm him and this left Xian quite perplexed. However, he could hear a scrapping sound coming from the wall a few meters away from him. He hurried and found that the passageway was half opened but already starting to close. He hesitated a moment, if he held the globe a little longer, he could open it completely. Trying his luck, he just jumped through the opening, hoping he could reach and go through in time.

It was a close call. He managed to be on the other side of the wall before it went back in place. Soon-Yi would probably scold him but he didn't want to hold the strange glowing globe anymore. He really wished he could completely avoid touching magic items. They really crept him out. When he thought back, the globe seemed to suck some magic out of him. Even though he loathed anything related to magic, even his own, it was impossible to do entirely without. It was part of him. He often wished to get rid of his powers, or more precisely, he wished he never had them from the beginning but having them sucked out of him felt uncomfortable.

Xian shook his head self-deprecatingly. Mixed feelings, or ambivalence, really didn't suit him. He should come to terms with his magic, one way or the other.

While pondering, he still hurried through the tunnel until he reached the sewers. The stench became overwhelming but what stopped him in his tracks was the corpses scattered everywhere. Most of them floating in the dirty water. Xian unsheathed his sword in addition to his dagger. Who killed these men and why ?